If the movie needs to have Bane come out and figure out Bruce Wayne's identity and outsmart Batman EVEN BETTER THAN THE JOKER DID and flag the fact he did it BETTER THAN THE JOKER this could feel on the nose. The Joker is going to be a barometer anyway, and telling the audience Bane's outsmarting Batman in a better manner then his old antagonist is inartful. If they want to write Bane as a smart strong man (quite probably the case) that could work. But it's best they keep the focus on how he thinks without comparing him to past villains at all. The antagonist should stand on his own two feet in that sense.

I think it's more constructive to apply that same imagination and effort to figuring out ways that something can work.

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Hey, I never said I could do better then Nolan. There's a reason one of us is an unemployed hack writing on a Star Trek bulletin forum at four in the morning and the other guy is the moneymaking toast of town.

To be fair, Nolan is quite aware that the Joker was set as the barometer in terms of villains and Heath's performance in the role was overshadowing everything else in that film. He has said as soon as the film's release that he didn't know if a sequel would happen because he didn't know how to top it. Then later on Nolan started to say that they would do another film not to top "The Dark Knight" but to tell a good story. So with that being said I believe that Nolan and company were able to find their story. It's going to be interesting to see how everything fits together.

If the movie needs to have Bane come out and figure out Bruce Wayne's identity and outsmart Batman EVEN BETTER THAN THE JOKER DID and flag the fact he did it BETTER THAN THE JOKER this could feel on the nose. The Joker is going to be a barometer anyway, and telling the audience Bane's outsmarting Batman in a better manner then his old antagonist is inartful.

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Not at all. Keep in mind that in The Dark Knight, a nebbishy WayneTech accountant was able to deduce Batman's identity, and that didn't show up the Joker. The fact is, the Joker didn't really want to know Batman's identity. He could've probably figured it out if he'd bothered to try, but he wasn't concerned with that. What he was concerned with was making his point that life was meaningless and anything that people believed in was futile and empty. He demanded that Batman reveal his identity to the public, not because he genuinely wanted to know it, but because he wanted to deconstruct the city's hero, tear down the people's hope. He was actually hoping that Batman wouldn't reveal his identity and therefore prove himself a hypocrite.

So it's really apples and oranges. The Joker wasn't specifically targeting Batman, except when it suited him as part of his overall strategy to bring anarchy to Gotham City. He didn't even really have anything against Batman and was happy to let him live so they could keep on playing the game. The Joker was targeting Gotham itself. Batman was merely an obstacle that he worked around or subverted to his own use in pursuit of his goal of tearing down the social order. So if Bane specifically targets Batman, that's a different dynamic, in terms of both character and theme. There's no direct comparison.

Besides, it's all about what fits best into the evolving character and thematic arc of the films. BB was about Bruce becoming a symbol of hope and justice in a city so corrupt that it needed a hero to step up. TDK was about Gotham reclaiming its own sense of decency, picking up the mantle so that Batman no longer had to carry it alone. Even when the Joker tried to bring out the worst in Gotham's citizens, they proved themselves able to rise above it -- and with Batman no longer needed as a hero to inspire the people, he embraced the role of a villain and let them stand on their own. So the next film needs to grow from that in terms of the theme and the character arc. Batman is a hero masquerading as a fallen hero, making himself an outcast for the good of Gotham. How does that affect him? Where does he go from there? Can he redeem himself, or even survive? That's where the story is. Not whether one villain is better than the last villain. What matters is that the villain serves the particular story that needs to be told about Bruce Wayne, Batman, and Gotham City.

You're welcome to contribute to the discussion or carry on another parallel one if you like. It's not like there's a finite number of posts the thread can hold. The only way two people can "dominate" a thread is if nobody else is choosing to contribute.

As a commenter at the linked site noted, it sounds just a little less implausible that Nolan could have taken this character from a Batman colouring book if you buy into the story that he got the idea for "Inception"from a Scrooge McDuck comic.

It all makes sense. John Blake is still pissed off that The Joker took his report card. I mean, Joseph Gordon-Levitt looks pretty young. It's conceivable he was a kid when The Dark Knight was happening.

Earlier this week we learned that The Dark Knight Riseswould be filming in India. Today, The India Times has many more details to add. According to their report, Christopher Nolan and his main crew will arrive in India on May 1st. Christian Bale is expected to arrive on the 4th or 5th, and filming will take place for two days on May 6th and 7th. They will be shooting at Jodhpur’s Mehrangarh Fort, which is pictured above. No other actors were mentioned… perhaps only Christian Bale is needed for the two days in India?

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Click here for more. Very exciting that filming will officially commence soon!

Wow you two are just dominating and hogging the thread. Great job fellas.

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Most threads are unfortunately like this ever since they decided to consolidate "all" discussion about a specific movie/franchise into one thread. Maybe it's like 3 or 4 people, but it's definately the same couple of people. Plus i think the super long 30-page thread keeps people away because of its length, if you miss a few days it becomes a burden to catch up.

The "hum" and "alive buzz" of new news gets lost. It's a common mistake I've seen by moderators of many different well-visited forums of all different subject matters.

As a commenter at the linked site noted, it sounds just a little less implausible that Nolan could have taken this character from a Batman colouring book if you buy into the story that he got the idea for "Inception"from a Scrooge McDuck comic.

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Speaking of that Uncle Scrooge story, I have that issue at home. It's a sequel of sorts of Don Rosa's The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck; you have to be familiar with at least the "main" volume of that for part of the story to make sense. That said, I quite liked it, it's a fun story.